A Little Spring Cleaning
by Pythonmelon
Summary: Igor asks Vlad to help him out with chores.


Igor knocked on the Count's coffin lid. He was, as usual, getting master up for the night. The hunchback had a lot of duties around the castle. He cooked, cleaned, acted as an alarm clock, managed who the Count fed on when for the most part, and provided a tall glass of fresh blood to the vampire every evening when the sun went down. Tonight Mina, the Count's annoying little human friend, was not coming over. She had to clean her room at home. The little man chuckled as Count Vlad rose out of the coffin. He took the glass without a word of recognition to his servant and emptied it with one long gulp.

The vampire got up out of the coffin and smiled tiredly. He was glad to be up, even with the disappointment of Mina not coming. He didn't feel like hunting tonight and planned to just lie around. He went to go down the stairs and couldn't help but notice how dirty the floors were. He liked the castle to be clean and had been keeping an eye on his servant's work. The condition of the castle was certainly not improving anymore. "Igor," He turned around at the bottom of the staircase and looked at the hunchback. "Vhy is the castle so dirty?"

Igor grumbled. He didn't get much help around here. Actually he didn't get ANY help at all. It was hard to keep a building this large clean. Before it would have stayed rather constant because Vlad wasn't one to make a mess, but now with all the playtime mud was tracked in and toys lay about. He just couldn't keep up. He had a sudden idea- maybe Master would help him? "I'm sorry," He nodded. "But I could use an extra hand."

The Count did not like donating his time to work. That was what Igor was for, wasn't it? But, considering he had nothing else to do, Vlad agreed. "Vhy not?" He shrugged. Igor was surprised that had actually worked. Maybe he should as for things more often? The little man could certainly use some dental coverage. And a chiropractor, because in case you hadn't noticed he had a bit of a back problem.

The Count took off his cape and tossed into onto the couch. "Let's get started."

"Let's." Igor took the cape off the couch back. "Go put this up. Really put it up. That's what cleaning is." He held it out to his master.

Vlad snatched it. Grumbling, he took it back upstairs to hang it up. "Feh." He muttered, remembering that cleaning was work.

"And I want you back down here instead of hiding out when you finish!" The little man waved a finger and Smirked. He had to coach the Count like a child sometimes. Standing, tapping his toe, the hunchback waited. And waited. After fifteen minutes, which he knew for a fact was not how long it took to hang up a cape, he glanced up. "Master! What are you doing up there?" He didn't get a reply. With a tired sigh he started to climb the stairs. "Come out! You said you would help!"

Vlad had locked himself in the closet. He hoped Igor wouldn't find him, even if he had promised to help. The vampire chuckled silently. He didn't want to help now but found it funny that he had cleaned for three minutes and then hidden. "Master?" He could hear the little man shuffling around outside. "Alright then, I'll tell Mina he's run away. That should keep her gone for a good long time." Igor smirked.

'_He wouldn't…_' Vlad thought, suddenly nervous that his servant _would_ call Mina. He heard Igor go down the stairs and stayed where he was. The vampire wasn't giving up that easily. As soon as all was quite again he let out the breath he had been holding. A few moments of silence went by. You couldn't hear the telephone from up here and it was killing him to think that Igor was calling his best friend and telling her not to come back. After maybe ten minutes of just sitting there in the closet he broke.

Swinging the door open Vlad ran down the stairs, almost panicked. Igor was quietly mopping and smirked when Master came tumbling down the stairs. His eyes got wide when the count tried to run across the floor he was mopping. "Wait!" He cried, but a little too late. The vampire went skidding across the floor and lost his balance, smacking into a window.

He slid down to the floor and sat up, rubbing the side of his head. He wiped some dirt from the window off his cheek. "I think I know vhere ve should start cleaning, then." Vlad grumbled and stood up. He had been very finely tricked by the hunchback into coming downstairs to help.

"Good." Igor tossed him a sponge. "You can wash windows while I mop."

The vampire examined the wet, soapy sponge with distaste. "How pleasant." He looked up at the rows of windows going across the room. They were caked with dust and spider webs. Getting up, he watched Igor mop for a few seconds. "How about ve both mop, then vash the vindows?"

The hunchback brightened. He liked the idea of splitting each job- it made it a lot easier. "Sure." He smiled and took the sponge from Vlad and handed him a wet mop.

Igor moved across the floor slowly with a pleasant smile. The vampire stood and watched him for a second before picking the mop a few inches off the floor and dropping it again. It made a wet slap and he frowned. Trying to get the work done, the Count followed Igor in a path beside the hunchback. Man, this was boring. He looked around for some way, any way, to get out of cleaning or at least make it more fun. The vampire brightened when he spotted a set of hand brushes in the water bucket. "Come on!" He smiled and grabbed the brushes, fitting them onto his shoes.

Igor raised an eyebrow slowly. What was the Count doing? He watched Vlad skate across the floor on the brushes and laugh. He went over to an old record player and started up some music. He left behind paths of slightly soapy but clean floors. The hunchback was surprised at the vampire's sudden enthusiasm. Suddenly Vlad grabbed Igor by the hands and spun him around. "Master!" She yelped and dropped the mop.

"Loosen up, Igor! Can't you make cleaning fun?" The Count spun them around again, efficiently cleaning the dirt off the floor.

The little man flailed and tried to get away from Vlad. "I'll clean the normal way!" He was, of course, ignored. The two went flying around the room in time with the music. "Put me down!" He struggled. Again Vlad didn't listen and made a figure eight. _Now_, he thought with a smile, _all I need is a way to make the window washing fun._

**The End**


End file.
